Christopher Street Day
Annual LGBT event in Europe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Street Day (CSD) is the annual Pride events in Germany. It is an LGBTQ+ celebration and demonstration held in various cities in Germany for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and against discrimination and exclusion. The most prominent CSD events are Berlin Pride, CSD Hamburg, and CSD Cologne in Germany, and CSD Zürich in Switzerland.[1]
History
The CSD is held in memory of the Stonewall riots[2], the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults that took place at the Stonewall Inn, a bar on Manhattan, New York City's Christopher Street in the district of Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.[3]
On Saturday, June 27, 1970, marches to mark the first anniversary of Stonewall were held in Chicago and San Francisco, followed on Sunday, June 28, 1970, by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in New York and the Christopher Street West Association Parade in Los Angeles; the four gatherings were the first Pride parades in United States history.[4][5] To accommodate the interests of the many different groups participating, the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee named the days leading up to the march Gay Pride Week.[6] Pride Month is now celebrated internationally in June.[3]
The first German Christopher Street Day took place in Berlin on June 30, 1979 with 450 demonstrators.[2] It subsequently spread to other cities throughout Germany.[1]
Current situation
CSD Berlin started in 1979. Now almost every large city in Germany celebrates CSD, with the largest in Berlin (Berlin Pride), Hamburg (Hamburg Pride) and Cologne (Cologne Pride). When Cologne hosted Europride in 2002, it attracted 1.4 million participants and spectators to the city.[7]
Christopher Street Day events do not always take place on the historic date of June 27, but on different weekends between June and August. CSD events often include demonstrations, parades, and street fairs. A typical Christopher Street Day Parade includes floats as well as walking groups usually provided by and made up of members of LGBT organizations.[8]
CSD events have been described as having a festive party atmosphere. It is typical to see many drag queens or women and men colorfully dressed.[9] BDSM enthusiasts also often participate in CSDs.[10] In addition to the Parade and the final rallies, in many cities there are days or up to whole weeks of street festivals and cultural events with artists, political events, lectures, readings, parties and other festivities.[11]
In Berlin
In Berlin, Kreuzberg Pride (also known as Kreuzberger CSD, "Transgenialer" CSD or X*CSD) offers an alternative CSD event that centers radical politics. This event spotlights issues such as refugees, drug treatment, housing and gentrifiation.[12]
In June 2010, American philosopher and theorist Judith Butler refused the Civil Courage Award (Zivilcouragepreis) of the Christopher Street Day Parade in Berlin, Germany at the award ceremony, arguing and lamenting in a speech that the parade had become too commercial, and was ignoring the problems of racism and the double discrimination facing homosexual or transsexual migrants. According to Butler, even the organizers themselves promote racism.[13] The general manager of the CSD committee, Robert Kastl, countered Butler's allegations and pointed out that the organizers already awarded a counselling center for lesbians dealing with double discrimination in 2006. Regarding the allegations of commercialism Kastl explained further that the CSD organizers do not require small groups to pay a participation fee which starts at 50 € and goes up to 1500 €. He also distanced himself from all forms of racism and Islamophobia.[14]
Politicians attending
Politicians often participate in CSDs, including:
- Federal Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Joschka Fischer (Cologne, 2002, Hamburg 2004, Cologne 2005)
- Federal Minister Renate Künast (Berlin 2001)
- Former Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit (since 2001)
- Mayor of Frankfurt Petra Roth (2004)
- Prime Minister of Hesse Roland Koch (Frankfurt am Main)
- President of the German Bundestag Wolfgang Thierse (Berlin 2000)
In some cities, politicians are also patrons of the CSD, for example in Hamburg, the former First Mayor Ortwin Runde, and Ole von Beust, in Dresden Mayor Ingolf Rossberg, in Würzburg Claudia Roth, in Munich the former Mayor Christian Ude as well as current Mayor Dieter Reiter and in Brunswick, the former Federal Minister Jürgen Trittin.
